From

BREAD

to WINE

CREATION, WORSHIP, AND CHRISTIAN MATURITY

JAMES B. JORDAN

Theopolis

BOOKS

AN IMPRINT OF ATHANASIUS PRESS

From Bread to Wine

Creation, Worship, and Christian Maturity

Copyright © 2019 James B. Jordan

First published in Rite Reasons 62–77 (February 2000–May 2001) by Biblical Horizons

P.O. Box 1096

Niceville, Florida 32588

Theopolis Books

An Imprint of Athanasius Press

Athanasius Press

715 Cypress Street

West Monroe, Louisiana 71291

www.athanasiuspress.org

isbn: 978-1-7335356-6-3 (softcover)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Contents

INTRODUCTION: A Work in Progress

CHAPTER ONE: The Ritual of the Lord’s Supper

CHAPTER TWO: Priest, King, and Prophet

CHAPTER THREE: From Bread to Wine

Bread and Cup

CHAPTER FOUR: God’s Life and Our Lives

How God Lives Within Himself

Human Life

CHAPTER FIVE: From Three to Five

Three, Five, and Seven

A Double Sequence

CHAPTER SIX: The Ritual Offerings

The Lord’s Supper

CHAPTER SEVEN: Death and New Life

CHAPTER EIGHT: Repeating the Ritual

David, Adam, and Jacob

Jesus

CHAPTER NINE: The Places of Trial and Suffering

The Patriarchs

Jesus’ Three Testings and the Lord’s Supper

Bible History

Our Lives

Suffering With Those We Love

Conclusion

CHAPTER TEN: Journey to Maturity, Part One: Leaving Home

Leaving Home

Rejecting All Change

Ritual Applications

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Journey to Maturity, Part Two: Midlife Crisis

Biographies

Ritual Applications

CHAPTER TWELVE: Journey to Maturity, Part Three: Becoming Prophets

Biographies

Ritual Applications

Conclusion: The Three Crises

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Genesis One:

History and Biography

Sevenfold Covenant History

Sevenfold World History

God and Genesis One

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Genesis One and Ritual

History and Ritual

Calendar

Biography

Christian Liturgy

APPENDIX A

Christian Piety: Deformed and Reformed

Primeval Piety: Its Corruption and Restoration

The Deformation of Piety

The Reformation of Piety

APPENDIX B

Twelve Fundamental Avenues of Revelation

Trinitarian Revelation

Three Modes in Four Spheres

Introduction

A Work in Progress

Liturgical Theology is virtually non-existent in Calvinistic circles in the United States. While work has been done by Reformed thinkers in France, such as Jean-Jacques von Allmen and Richard Paquier, for the most part theological reflection on liturgics is found only in Anglican, Lutheran, Roman, and Orthodox circles. Reformed liturgists, such as they are, seem content with repeating lists of dos and don’ts or with making historical studies. The works of von Allmen and Paquier have been made available in English, but from Lutheran and other non-Reformed publishing houses!

At this point in my life, I have neither the time nor the resources to write a comprehensive Liturgical Theology to present to ...

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About From Bread to Wine: Creation, Worship, and Christian Maturity

Biblical rituals are not strange practices or obscure formalities but correspond to the stages of human life, revealing God’s design for how we can emulate His ways. In From Bread to Wine: Creation, Worship, and Christian Maturity, James B. Jordan explores how sin disrupts the rhythms of human life and how biblical rituals restore us to our place in God’s historical plan with special emphasis on the motifs of bread and wine throughout the Scriptures.

In the Bible, bread is priestly while wine is kingly and prophetic. Bread comes first and wine later. You eat bread in the morning and drink wine at night. Bread is suitable for children while wine is for adults. Bread is made quickly, but wine takes much longer to ferment and mature. The entire Old Creation, the childhood of humanity (Galatians 4), is the time of bread, while the New Covenant, our maturity in Christ, is the time of bread and wine. Between the two comes the breaking of the bread, the death of Jesus Christ.

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Table of Contents